COVID-19 – protecting your machinery as well as yourself when failure is not an option.

In the current climate we are all in, with increasing restrictions on our lives and higher awareness of infectious diseases transmission, ensuring the nation keeps going through this is more important than ever. Many of our customers simply can not afford to shut down as they are in key industries that are keeping the nation going such as:

  • Food production.
  • UK business transport infrastructure
  • Power generation of the electricity we all need including coal mines, gas engines, wind farms and power stations.
  • Maintenance and repair of critical life saving backup generators at key institutions including supermarkets and hospitals.

For instance, at the moment it is a key time for servicing of backup generators that are used to ensure life supporting equipment at our nations hospitals to keep them running, especially when we all know that are all going to be under a lot of strain. So simply shutting down the lab is not an option when our customers are so heavily relying on us to help keep this critical machinery going.

A story of going the extra mile during these difficult times

Today we are open as usual and will be guided by the governments updates as they come. What is more is our dedicated staff have volunteered to stop late to ensure we continue to service these key national industries. For example, we have been processing urgent samples into the night from some of these critical sectors including samples arriving during the night from UK power stations to ensure they can continue to keep our nation going during these difficult times. Naturally, we, as have many other businesses – including your own – had to adapt to these changes that seem to be coming hourly. Our priority is always first and foremost the safety of both our customers and our staff and we will continue reviewing the government recommendations as they become available.

What are we doing to help reduce the spread of COVID-19?

Being a laboratory, general good laboratory practice techniques have meant the day to day work remains un-changed as we already work with good contamination and exposure minimising practices anyway. We have built on this and proactively started at the beginning of March, prior to the government self isolation guidelines offering customers Skype rather than face to face meetings. We also as part of our greener initiatives have been offering web based training courses to our customers to reduce both ours and our customers carbon footprints, which is invaluable now for those wanting to use their time productively during self isolation.

With regards to sample packages and sample containers we as standard use good cleanliness and hygiene practices in sample kit creation to ensure contamination from the environment is reduced which could effect sample results, so we have continued to follow these guidelines in addition to general additional hand washing by all our staff and self isolation should anyone feel unwell. Naturally all our parcels are shipped through courier networks, which is out of everyone’s control bar the couriers, but the world health organisation and CDC have both said the risk of catching an infective dose from plastic packaging is extremely low. Many of the couriers have already written to us to say what extra measures they are putting in. This includes some may not take signatures (to avoid people touching those little signature tablets the drivers carry). So this means customers who require POD signatures, that this may not be available during this period.

What can you do?

We ask all our customers to use us as best they can as normal. In terms of reducing spread please be willing to accept online/Skype meetings during this period. In addition, to reduce spread to others wear gloves whilst taking samples as this will protect you from the fluid getting onto you from your samples, but also help reduce spread to others. We thank you for your continued custom and wish you all the best through these troubling times.